Dark Night, Make My Bed
by Thyme In Her Eyes
Summary: Bram Stoker's Dracula: Mina and the green mist. Mmm, yes.


Dark Night, Make My Bed

by Thyme In Her Eyes

_Author's Note: _Another Mina-centric story based on the film _Bram Stoker's Dracula_ – and just to disclaim, I own nothing and am making no profit from this, etc. Anyway, this is set during the "green mist" scene. Hopefully, it's surreal in a good way. Now enjoy, and please leave feedback.

**-- DARK NIGHT, MAKE MY BED --**

_If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there._

– Psalm 139:8

**x-x-x**

Green was always her favourite colour. It is ancient and warm, and embodies something essential to her. It has peace and serenity as well as vitality and strength, and Mina longs for these qualities with sharp need, so that she may weather the storm she has unknowingly wandered into and find the courage to make the right choices. Perhaps, she may do all these things and remain true to herself, for green has always carried a trace of hope in its depths.

Green is also the colour of her heart, her awakening soul. Inside it dwell leaves, life and rebirth, and the many strange and sweet things which move inside the forests of her dreams. They rustle across her sleeping thoughts and tell sad stories her waking mind could never believe, but she has never tried to shut them out. Now, the shade is substantial and demanding as it brushes over sleep and tangles in all she has buried and tried to abandon. It bids them to rise, and nothing feels more natural.

_He_ belongs there too – in her dreams, in her soul – and that is the most natural thing of all. Often, this truth terrifies and pains her, but tonight she accepts and embraces. She understands at last that, in spite of everything, he has come for her, he has _found _her, and all lingering thoughts of guilt and duty are dwarfed by her breathless joy. Her love is remembered and realized.

When awake, she fights herself and tries to deny this, and so she sleeps without peace. The memories of their time together fill her with wrenching hurt and loss, and slowly splinters her marriage, but in dreams she is no longer alone or afraid. Lost under heavy sheets, she reaches out night after night for what she dares not seek by light of day. Tonight is much the same, and yet entirely different, and all her sorrows and fear have dissolved; destroyed by his nearness. Her dreams of him are so often red, but this one is green and guiltless as the absinthe which once danced down her throat.

She is vulnerable in this night, and his for the taking. She is curled in blankets, seeking elusive warmth, and he covers her small form, shielding her senses from everything except himself. He is cool and reviving as air, fresh as freedom, heavy as centuries-old desire, and endless as love. And he is hers, he whispers and vows. He is her true and rightful husband, and now holds her in his arms, where she has always belonged and found her greatest happiness. They have been entangled in each other for what seems like an eternity, and now it is time. At last, it is _their_ time.

Mina's heart pounds as her drifting, dreaming mind recognizes the presence so close to her and understands who it is settling over her and mouthing beautiful words over her body. Once, she tried to disobey her heart's desire, and the separation was unbearable. Now, as she feels his touch – so thrillingly new, so achingly familiar – her soul quakes with wonder, longing, and absolute certainty. She is no desperate wanderer as he is, but a gentle seeker, and tonight finds herself able to answer his call.

As the night breeze wafts through her window, there is a lost traveler in her hair and on her skin. He is green as life and fertile sin, incorporeal as a dream, and drenches her in a touch more dizzying than any drink. A voice, more familiar than her own flesh, echoes in the shell of her ear and all loneliness vanishes. There are roses in his words and gleaming white thorns in his mouth. He has come home to her. She is found. More than that, she will never be lost again – he will never again let her go or allow any force to divide them.

There is something wrong, an intuitive corner of her mind protests – there is a hint of dead meat on his breath, and fresh blood on his lips. Despite this, she gives herself utterly to him. The air hanging about her may be foul, but its taste is sweet; conjuring powerful memories of her first taste of absinthe and passion. There was always a darkness walking in him, but Mina no longer fears it and no longer cares about the damage it may inflict on her, for she can face and endure it. It has hurt him too, and he needs her. He is of the earth, of lands unknown, of primal instincts and dark, pounding, restless animal blood, but with her he is gentle and loving. He governs the elements but he does not govern her.

Something dances on her flesh, and Mina feels his hands. A smoking, coiling mist plants chill kisses on her as it creeps up her form, causing her body to shiver and her blood to heat. He glides over her legs, across her small hips and up her belly, softening and curling at her breast and tasting her heart's beat. He clutches at that precious heartbeat and moves and flows with its music. He cleaves to her throat, sighing around her sleeping face. At the sound of his voice, she aches with him. The feel of him as he is now, the briefest sensations of skin, is a waiting world of pleasure. Green whispers, ethereal snakes on her mouth, coil over her throat and lips, carrying caresses familiar to her most cherished and shameful dreams.

Her hitched breath is rising steam as her mouth forms uncomprehending whispers and pleas that shudder through her. Unable to understand or escape from her own feelings, she throbs and thirsts for him. Her fingers twitch, reaching for him, and meet only air and mist, passing hopelessly through him as he flows around her seeking hand. A stray tendril lingers at the wrist, over her racing pulse, and feels the blood sway within her as her hands grip hopelessly at the bedsheets.

He settles over her like a shroud, but does not stifle her. Instead, her limbs loosen, accepting his touch as he swirls over her, sampling her everywhere. Her mind is aloft and adrift as Mina grapples with her desire, her inexplicable connection to him and unceasing need for him, and her resolve has never been clearer. Breathless and smiling, she yields both her soul and every part of herself to his touch as a commanding, caressing hand reaches through veils of sleep and mystery, and traces her face.

This is the core of every secret yearning. He is everywhere, brushing against her softly, then firmly; reminding her of how he loved, how he tasted, how closely they had once been bound, and still were. The one she loves is all around her and upon her, enfolding her and whispering to her, softly compelling her to admit how she aches for this, and always has. Freely and easily, she gives him that, unable to allow guilt and shame to hold her back any longer. Her heart is free and her body melts, undone.

He is damp on her flesh, and she absorbs him. She breathes him in; the pores of her skin eager to claim him. Drops of moisture hang on her lips, traces of a kiss left by the swirling green, and her soft mouth waters and whimpers. Unloosed, her hands search again for him, for a way to feel flesh and draw him close. The intimacy of feeling of him everywhere, roaming across her body and through her mind, engulfs her as every new touch burns unspeakable words of passion upon her. She wishes he were whole so that she might wrap her arms around him, pull his heart to hers, and never again let go. She will never give up, and longs to make their reunion complete.

Her hand reaches again for him, passing through the mist of him, and her fingers move inside the whorls of his heart. Each fingertip feels the ghost of a kiss pressed against it, and Mina cannot linger in sleep any more. Hidden truths tumble from her lips, secrets meant for him alone, and she allows him to draw her out from her strange slumber and up into a world where he waits for her.

Ready at last, she is torn bare from dreams, skin glistening with sweat and blushing with heat. Without him, she is hollow and aching, and knows she cannot exist like that any longer, without the revelation of him. But he at her side her now, embracing her, and it is no dream this time. The landscape glowing under her eyes is green and he is with her, as he must always be.

She awakens, and all will to deny him is gone. Her pained resistance detaches and falls away from her gently and naturally, as her hands meet his skin and welcome him into her bed, her smile welcoming him into her soul. At last, Mina opens her eyes and bravely falls from heaven as she falls into all of him.

**-- FIN --**


End file.
